I'm all for saving on the budget, especially since I'm in the middle of planning my DD's. But come on!!! Food, Cake and Photography are on the no compromise list. Guests will remember the food and cake, and you will be looking at those pictures for the rest of your life. (Heck- I still look at mine and I will be married 30 yrs in 3week!)

We had a VERY cheap wedding...small wedding in south dakota, friends and family...rehearsal dinner was a backyard BBQ and then we took everyone to Mount Rushmore to see the lights show. For the wedding we had an afternoon reception and just had the traditional cake, punch, nuts, and mints, and it was at my house (parents had a nice open and big living room/dining room area...I miss it!).

We hardly spent anything on the wedding but we did spend $500 on photography (which was alot for us back in 1996) and we are so glad we did...we rented a beautiful chapel made of wood with a grass roof and very picturesque grounds so the photos are lovely.

I did have a friend make the cake. I didn't do them at the time.

I say we email the writer and tell her what ridiculousness she's peddling.

cheatize - - - I think some in the bridal industry like these article writers, make it easy for people to think unrealistically. Welllll, obviously that's an understatement. But, you know what I mean....People in my area also make sure they have favors. Even if it's just one little piece of homemade candy.

Maybe that rep was trying to tie me into a longer more expensive payment in the cake category for advertising? She tried to sell me on the traffic statistics. It was an area with more views....however, if I'm the only one offering edible favors on this site EVERY view, even smaller numbers....would be of me! I thought that was smart.

Anywhooooo, it WOULD BE interesting to write a real article. Really...what could you come up with for saving money? I think it would be better to send out nice announcements and have a smaller party in somebody's back yard, than have a million people at a party you don't love. Today's society just trains you to obsess over things that don't matter...it's about you getting MARRIED. Anyway....

If I were to save money I'd definitely have a smaller guest list and I'd have the wedding at an odd time so I didn't have to cater a full meal.

I'd also make my own cake. haha. Luckily I'm already married!

I'm not married but my Dad always said, he'd pay me to elope. Oh yeah....he also always said to marry for money! What a nerd....

I always told HIM....that I'd have MY OWN MONEY!!!! eh eh eh!

Honestly though, if you can learn to smooth a cake, going for a casual or sweet/delicate looking cake would be easy with a stand. My very first wedding cake I made was on a floating tier stand. It was a backyard wedding. Don't cringe....but I arranged greenery with tiny light yellow and lavender rose buds all around the stand and on the table. The cake finish was done with the back of a spoon...soft waves. So, no smoothing even required here... The bride was "understated - girly" so it was perfect.

here in farmland, I routinely do cake for 400 plus. I guess that's why I'd figure most wouldn't want more cake than they need.
I was at a wedding this weekend where I did the cake and the bride insisted she only wanted 252 servings for a 350 person wedding, because "not everyone is coming, and not everyone will eat cake." Well, pretty much everyone came.
So I'm sitting at the table watching the slideshow after dinner and I get the TINIEST piece of cake ever! I was mortified. The hall cut that thing up to feed 350 and everyone got cake, whether they wanted it or not. It was good- the half mouthful I got anyway.

I have to agree that photography, food and cake should be tops on the list! I love my wedding pictures and look at them often! A friend of mine, who was a cake decorater at the time made my 3-tier bc covered cake, with burgundy roses and lily of the valley covering it and my chocolate grooms cake as our wedding gift. They were awesome and now that I do cakes, I realize how much time, effort and money she really put into them! We hired my SIL's sister to do the food, she is a caterer. And to this day, 9 years later, people still talk about how good the food was! I still try to make the smothered chicken at home, but can't get it as good as hers! Hey, I'm a baker not a cook! lol!

I found my dress on clearance at David's Bridal, plus I had a coupon! Ended up only paying about $250! It was beautiful, I thought, good enough to walk down the aisle without breaking my parents!

But, to each his own! I think that what is important to me may not be important to someone else! Oh, and entertainment! Entertainment is important! Our DJ sucked! Hire someone who is gonna' get out there and shake his groove thing with everyone else! lol! Not a bump on a log who is just good at changing a cd!

There's the saying... "Better more than enough food than not enough"... In all seriousness, I'd rather be at the reception that ordered enough cake for 300 and only 100 guests than the one that ordered enough cake for 100 and had 300 guests... No one will ever complain about the option of seconds but they will complain and leave early if their bellies aren't full at the end of the meal... I still remember the wedding that I got the half slice of sheet cake at our table while everyone else got a full slice of filled cake... Flowers, meal, dress, etc. nada... but the fact that I got the "cheap" slice (they actually paid more per inch for my itsy bitsy slice - 3.25 - than they did for the full slice of cake - 3.50 -), you betcha I remember that from their wedding...

I've actually used that exact photo of the cake in a comparison flyer .... I show a paint-by-number and a Van Gogh, with the heading "Same ingredients". I show a pottery bowl and The Statue of David, with the heading "Both made of stone". I show this DIY cake and I show a cake masterpiece with the heading "It's just flour and eggs". And the final heading ...."Yeah ... it DOES make a difference!"

And the "how to piss off your vendor" sounds REAL interesting!

Re: the bride who is charging $10 for her guests to attend? I cant remember where I heard it (and it might have been on here or on www.etiquettehell.com) but a bride set up a cash box next to the cake table and charged each guest $5 for a slice of cake!

Debi, I remember talking about the ten dollar one... I think it was from etiquettehell, but we were discussing it here. The cake one is new for me though. I'd have handed her a twenty, then slapped four pieces on one plate and smashed right in her greedy little face. If you can't afford a big wedding... freakin' elope. I have friends who started their marriages with 30k of debt for the wedding... guess which laster longer, the loan or the marriage?

I guess this just shows how everyone has different personal priorities.

WHICH

Means people shouldn't be writing articles telling people what budget areas to cut. Because people should cut what's not as important to THEM and spend more on what they feel IS important.

How we saved money at our wedding....We got married on Friday night after dinner. The food and yes the cake were done by the high school culinary class (they consistently win awards for their food and it was fantastic and beautiful) The cake was done for cost (I wanted a non-traditional one) and the appetizers were less than half what they would have been. We had the wedding and reception at a B&B, since we had to rent the entire place our family all stayed in the rooms and they paid for their own rooms. Our DJ wanted a surcharge so they could rent a tux, dh didn't wear one-no reason for the dj to (this is what I would change now-I would just make a playlist on my iPod and use that, at least I know I would get the music I requested which I did not at my wedding). I had my dress made, cost $250, perfect. The photographer was a photo journalism student-so our photos look like celebrity snaps, my brother had just done the formal wedding thing a couple of months before so no need for those. People still talk about how beautiful it was, and I love the photos so much more than I would if we were all standing in a stiff line.

I've been to three weddings that didn't hire a DJ or other form of entertainment, I think the key determining factor there is how "fun" the couple is and do they provide something to "do"... In one case, the couple did the Ipod/computer music and though they had songs they wanted to hear, none of the guests had any music to dance to or traditional music that anyone knew the lyrics to for that matter... The second was at the Hilton and everyone left the second dinner was over because there was NOthing to keep people around after the undercooked dinner... The third, the couple put some games on a few of the tables, gave kids activitiy bags, and was in the middle of the day in an AC building of a large park (aka spent the least of the three)... Guess which one people actually had fun at and stuck around for.. No one was playing games, but the third relaxed couple was the one that the atmosphere was set for a good time (and LOTS of cookies for dessert LOL). It's something our priest pointed out to us before our wedding, if the bridal party are having a great time others are goin to feed off of it.

Well said Kitagirl!

Everyone does have their own set of what is important to them!
I had little scrolls with a poem and our names and date on them at my wedding! Big waste, but I got pulled into all the neat stuff and thought they were so cute! Ended up throwing most of them away, because people left them on the tables! lol! Now, I advise against anything like that! An edible favor or something guests can actually use is def the way to go and a much wiser use of money! But, there again, just my opinion! lol!

My dress wasn't "that" important to me either. I was already getting everything I wanted in my husband, he's all I ever wanted. I just wanted my guests to be happy and have a good time, that's why I was so dissappointed in the DJ, but they still had a good time! Good food and good cake! I guess it all depends on what you expect your wedding to be!

I read an article the other day regarding a similar topic. I forgot the name of the website. The author talked about ways to save money, and of course the cake was first on the list. She said that cake was just food and is going to be eaten anyway. Why spend an excessive amount of money on something that is only going to be consumed by the guests? My first thought was the dinner is "just food" that is also going to be consumed by the guests. Wouldn't the same logic apply to that as well? Why spend so much money on food and catering?